Ok, the insulation on my battery cable wore through and shorted my system. Car shut down and battery was dead. I fixed the problem temporarily with some electrical tape and push started. It started up and ran about 10 miles with the tach going ape sh*t. I pulled into my driveway and could hear (and feel) my rotor destroying my distributor cap. The car quit. Battery still dead. I bought a new cap and rotor (motor is a b16, by the way) and my distributor proceeded ot destroy my new cap, also (big surprise). The #3 Cyl cap terminal is being KILLed by the rotor. Any ideas other than a new distributor? Will that solve my problem? Anyone ever had/seen this happen?

 

could be a bad coil, but not 100% sure

 

Unless the screw that retains the rotor on the shaft is gone-you have a verys serious problem that will NOT be fixed by simple method of cap and rotor. I suggest that you check this part first and if it is OK get in touch with Distributor King and order a new distributor. If the car ran then it is very unlikely that the coil or Ignitor are bad in the usual sense. The fact that you had a failure of the electrical system has little to do with a mechanical grinding.
Check the rotor screw and if good then replace distributor. BTW: Also get your battery cables replaced-they are cheap.
Hope this gets things working for you.

 

Thanks for the input. It sucks that i have to order a distributor and bum rides until it gets here. I guess there aren't any distributors (nearby) that will work on an early JDM b16. I thought I got lucky with an integra one intil I looked at the mounting legs. How stupid is that?
By the way, i did try a new cap/rotor, like I said. Waste of $25. Now it looks exactly like my original.
JC, I agree that mechanical grinding should have little to do with electrical, but in this case i find it very odd that my distributor crapped out about 10 minutes after my elec system shorted.
Thanks again for the input. This is a pretty cool site, eh.